Material evaporation chamber with differential vacuum pumping

An evaporation chamber for growth of materials on a sample, said evaporating chamber comprising:

• a vacuum chamber;
• first and second pumping units;
• a wall providing total or partial vacuum tightness and delineating within the vacuum chamber a first volume pumped by said first pumping unit and a second volume pumped by said second pumping unit, said wall comprising a plate;
• and
• a manipulator for mounting the sample in the first volume;
• wherein certain sources of material by evaporation having a main axis are placed individually in the second volume and other sources of plasma or gas injectors are placed in the first volume,
• wherein said wall includes a plurality of recesses, each recess defining an opening and being centered on the main axis of each of the sources of material having the main axis, and
• wherein the chamber includes a plurality of toggle masks each of said toggling mask being actuated by an external toggling device and controlled individually, each toggle mask comprising a blade, each toggle mask for plugging or clearing a corresponding one of said recesses and, when in a plugging position, for ensuring vacuum tightness between said first volume and said second volume, each of said individually placed sources in the second volume has a corresponding one of the toggle masks being controlled individually so that when the source of material in the second volume corresponding to an opening is selected, the molecular beam transmitted by this source goes, on a way to the sample, through said opening,
• wherein, i) when said mask is in the plugging position, the blade is parallel to the surface of the plate around the corresponding recess in order to ensure a seal between said surface and the mask, and ii) when the mask is in a clearing position, said blade is not parallel to the surface of the plate in order to clear the corresponding recess of a selected source of materials in the second volume, and
• wherein the second volume is pumped by the second pumping unit for pumping species in presence during the growth of layers when opening the mask of the corresponding selected source of materials, and
• wherein the first pumping unit and the second pumping unit generates a differential pressure between the first volume and the second volume when a toggle mask corresponding to a source of material selected in the second volume is open, in order to protect the unused sources of materials in the second volume, the tightness of the masks in the plugging position being reinforced by the differential pressure which exists between the first volume and the second volume.